The Very First Post

Hello out there!  After much research, deliberating, and the realization that my knowledge of designing something visually pleasing with the computer is probably at about the level of a second grader, (possibly younger...maybe I should have asked a second grader to create this blog for me...), I am finally posting my very first blog entry.  Even though I feel like my blog is sooo boring-looking, I realize that the blogs I have been admiring are of those who started blogging years ago, and that they too may have started with a ho-hum template and blogging knowledge that could fit on the head of a pin, as I am.  As per usual in my life I want to be ABSOLUTELY PERFECT at a task before I start it, or else I want to forget it...ah the joys of being a perfectionist that is spectacularly average at most everything...but that's another post for another day.


Anyway, so T-minus 3 1/2 days until the big departure date, on Saturday September 18th, 5:30 pm is the end of my life as I have known it and beginning of new sights, sounds, smells, tastes...new everything!  As I sit in my in-laws guest room, (still in my PJ's at nearly 11:30 am; joining the world of blogging in style apparently), I am still stunned that at this time next week I will be across the world in the country of Indonesia, not to return to my safe, Midwestern life until sometime in 2014-yikes!  Most of you that are reading this, at least at first, know why I am making this big move, but if there are any readers that don't know me that join this adventure at some point, (I'm really thinking positively here), let me give a little background.


In 2007, (you are thinking, "Oh man, she's going back years, this is going to be a LONG story", but I promise I will give the short version), I was leading a fairly boring, predictable life, living alone in a beautiful upper flat of a home in Royal Oak, Michigan and working as a speech-language pathologist at a rehabilitation center for those who had suffered traumatic brain injuries and that's where I met my husband-no, I'm totally kidding, my husband doesn't have any brain injuries...that I know of.  I was attending Genesis Church at the time, and had been involved in a small group Bible study for almost 1 year.  In that Bible study we often prayed for Chris, a missionary pilot with Mission Aviation Fellowship serving in Indonesia.  I had no idea who he was or what he looked like, I actually pictured him as an Indonesian man.  A few weeks before Christmas 2007 I showed up to Bible study and this guy walked in, a very good-looking guy might I add, and he sat right next to me!  I quickly found out that he was Chris, the missionary pilot we had been praying for-he wasn't Indonesian at all, but actually quite the All-American boy.  That was the beginning of a quick hanging out/dating stint (January-March 2008), we were engaged by the beginning of April 2008, he left for Indonesia for the year, and came back 3 weeks before our wedding on June 6, 2009.  Since then we have been on a whirlwind tour of the country attending missionary training, airplane electronics training (Chris did that one on his own), and finding people to partner with us with their prayers and finances so that we are able to get overseas and stay there for our full term, which is 3 1/2 years.  There are so many more fun and crazy details to our story (our all-night first date-totally innocent, I promise-our infamous Engagement Story involving a broken back, conducting a relationship over Skype, et cetera, et cetera) I will have to blog more in detail later.  For now, you have more of an idea of why I will be moving to a little island off the coast of Borneo called Tarakan in just a few days.  After living out of suitcases for over a year, much with my parents and in-laws (Lord help us!), we are finally leaving to begin our new life in the jungle!


I suppose that is probably enough for today, I don't really know the rules of blogging, but I do know that people have a limited attention span (admit it, you've probably checked your cell phone, facebook, or email at least once while reading this post) so I will skedaddle for now.  I have to get dressed sometime today, and then there's the packing I haven't done yet...yeah, gotta go!  Thanks for stopping by and reading, more to come very soon!!!